Vicky Foxcroft Labour MP for Lewisham North
Last month, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to enact the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, passed in the wash-up period prior to the dissolution of the last Parliament.
In January next year, we will commence the removal of the two-year restriction on enfranchisement and lease extension claims from the point of property purchase so that leaseholders will no longer have to wait.
In Spring 2025, we will commence the provisions on the Right to Manage which increase access to the right for leaseholders in mixed-use buildings, alongside reforming costs and voting rights. We will consult very shortly on the detail of the Act’s ban on buildings insurance remuneration.
Next summer, we will consult on the valuation rates used to calculate the cost of enfranchisement premiums. Parliament will then need to approve the secondary legislation that sets out the detail, as well as fixing the Act’s serious flaws in further primary legislation, before implementing the package.
Next year, we will consult on implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act’s new consumer protection provisions for homeowners on freehold estates; its measures on service charge transparency and legal costs, bringing these measures into force as quickly as possible thereafter.
We then intend to introduce a draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill in the second half of next year. This ambitious new draft legislation will tackle problems faced by existing leaseholders and will take action to make commonhold the new default tenure for flats.
To set out our thinking in advance of the Bill and invite consultation and discussion about how we finally transition away from leasehold, we will publish a White Paper on reforms to commonhold early next year.
Alongside setting out our plans for a comprehensive new legal framework for commonhold, we will take decisive first steps to making commonhold the default tenure by the end of the parliament through a consultation on the best approach to banning new leasehold flats, so this can work effectively alongside a robust ban on leasehold houses.
The Government also:
- Remains committed to its manifesto commitment to tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and will deliver this in legislation;
- Will remove the disproportionate and draconian threat of forfeiture as a means of ensuring compliance with a lease agreement;
- Will consult next year on new reforms to the section 20 ‘major works’ procedure;
- Will look again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector, particularly in light of the recommendations in the final Grenfell Inquiry report. We will strengthen regulation of managing agents to drive up the standard of their service, including as a minimum mandatory professional qualifications, and will consult on this matter next year;
- Very importantly, will also consult next year on options to reduce the prevalence of private estate management arrangements to end the injustice of ‘fleecehold’.
These things do take time, but this Government is taking action to tackle injustice in the private rented sector and will bring about an end to exploitative leasehold practices.
You can read the full Written Ministerial Statement by Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, here.